Lusa - Business News - Mozambique: GDP to September up 3.4% YoY, still slower than official forecast

Maputo, Nov. 7 (Lusa) – Mozambique’s economy was in the first nine months of this year 3.4% larger than in the same period of 2017, according to the government, which announced the rate after a meeting of the cabinet at which it looked at budget execution for the period.
"In terms of performance, looking at key indicators, gross domestic product grew by 3.4%," said Ana Comoana, cabinet spokeswoman, after the meeting, saying that the figure " already demonstrates the improvement of the performance of the national economy."
For the first quarter alone, year-on-year GDP growth was 3.2%, while for the first half of 2018 it was 3.3%.
But with just one quarter to go to the full year, the figure still falls short of the government’s official projection.
At the start of this year the government was projecting growth of 5.3% for 2018 as a whole – a figure that was revised down by the Ministry of Economics and Finance last month, to 4.1%.
The World Bank expects Mozambique's economy to grow 3.3% this year, while the International Monetary Fund points to 3.5%.
Mozambique’s GDP last year swelled by 3.7% and in 2016 by 3.8%.
As for the implementation of the state budget for this year, Comoana said, it shows the effects of "the rationalisation of public expenditure" as well as "improving the capacity to collect revenues from the state”.
In economic terms, the government said that it would be paying attention to the housing and restaurant sectors, "which may boost the national economy," she said.